Common sense is not so common

 

Just over a century ago, schools and some youth organisations  routinely taught practical abilities that now today feel specialized. Home economics covered food, clothing, budgeting, and household management, while manual-training courses taught tool use and woodworking. Technology has made life easier, but it also made many once-routine skills optional, they were even taught by parents giving their children a leg up in the grand scheme of things in the vain hope that they learn a small but necessary skill, I’m not saying that this doesn’t  still happen, but sometimes I feel that the world is going backwards.

For example, losing a button once meant reaching for a needle and thread, not replacing the shirt. Sewing was taught through home economics for generations, and simple repairs helped clothing last longer. Today, plenty of people reach adulthood without learning this tiny fix, I’m one of them I have never learned this simple skill, but if I needed a simple button, I’d be screwed, I would go back to wearing a t-shirt, I used to work with someone who would and frequently did wear a shirt and bin it after two days he didn’t even own an iron!

The skill of knowing how to shorten pants, close a tear, or patch worn fabric could keep clothing useful for years. Household-arts programs taught garment construction and repair as practical skills. Modern wardrobes are easier to replace, making basic mending feel more like a hobby, how many times have you bought something at Primarni (look it up its slang) paid a couple of pounds and then thrown it away after a couple of times wearing it, that seems to be the way.

Sewing machines were once standard equipment in many homes, (I even bought my wife one, she only kept it for a few years before it was moved because of a lack of use) and students learned to operate them in school. This mattered when families made or altered more clothing themselves. The machines remain common, but using one is no longer an assumed household skill, I had a conversation with a group of people at work and surprisingly none of them owned a sewing machine, the older people of the group had used them before at  home and at school, but the younger people hadn’t even used one at school.

Home economics treated food preparation, sanitation, and nutrition as skills worth teaching systematically. Convenience foods and prepared meals have since reduced the need to build every dinner from raw ingredients. Cooking remains popular, but improvising a full meal from pantry staples is less automatic, I like to cook, I’m not saying I do anything special, but I do like to cook, after a crap day at work, choosing what I intend to cook and then preparing the meal certainly means for a stress-free evening, rather than me simply barking at people, because of my crap day amongst the living!

Following a simple recipe involves measurements, sequence, temperatures, timing, and terms such as simmer, fold, or knead. I quite like the process, granted I might rush at it from time to time (that’s just me) Those basics were embedded in household instruction a skill set I learnt as a child by my mother, she was sensible , Meal kits, prepared foods, and video tutorials can now guide beginners without requiring the same foundation, however I don’t think that is as much fun.

Bread baking once occupied a regular place in domestic life, although commercial bakeries gradually relieved households of the work. reporting has noted a decline in home baking. Managing yeast, kneading dough, and judging fermentation are now often treated as hobby skills. I remember as a child the number that there was a number of small independent bakeries throughout my hometown, the smell was sublime, but through the seventies one by one they disappeared, the one thing that the French do right is that there has to be a bakery in every town and village, I bought a bread maker which I use from time to time one for the bread but also for the smell  of the bread cooking, yum yum!

Home canning grew during World War I; it remained important through the 1930’s, and peaked during World War II before declining afterward. It let households preserve seasonal produce for later. Safe canning still requires tested methods because improper processing can create serious food-safety risks, it’s a skill that’s now used primarily in the United States and Canada from talking to friends within those two countries, we tend to put stuff in Jars, that’s one thing I don’t do!

During World War II, gardeners participated in planting gardens, supplying 40 percent of our nation's fresh vegetables. Gardening demanded knowledge of soil, planting, pests, watering, and harvest timing. Supermarkets made that knowledge less necessary, though home gardening never disappeared, I will be honest I’m not  a fan of gardening, a long story which you may never know could be a blog all by itself, watch this space!

Laundry once demanded more fabric knowledge because clothing was costly and washing technology was less forgiving. Household education included laundering, sanitation, and textile care. Modern detergents, machines, dry cleaners, and cheaper clothing reduced the pressure to master stain removal, I’m not totally useless its one of only two things that I don’t do at home, I’m totally happy doing all the other things in the house, but laundry it can be a bit like dark arts.

Before wrinkle-resistant fabrics, dryers, and casual dress codes became widespread, ironing was a regular household chore my brother loves doing his family’s accompanied by his album of the day. Household technology steadily reduced the work involved in clothing care. Plenty of people still own irons, but pressing different fabrics correctly is no longer universal knowledge, the other thing I don’t do , I never did it in the army, I swapped. I did peoples boots and they did my ironing I was good at cleaning boots they were good at ironing everybody was happy, however it was a skill I would have to learn eventually, I have done it, once or twice and I’m not adverse to it but it has to be serious for me to be involved!

Home economists made household budgeting a central part of practical education in the early twentieth century. Tracking income and expenses on paper made cash flow visible. Banking apps automate much of that work today, often hiding the mechanics behind everyday spending, I still like to keep track of my finances, those that have very little tend to track every penny, I’m not a miser, I just don’t want to be caught out and then panic because I have actually been caught out before , again it’s not perfect but I can but try.

Cursive was taught in schools for more than a century, then declined sharply after some muppet decided or rather emphasized keyboarding was the future and omitted cursive. By 2026, many schools are restoring it. The fact that there is a potential revival shows how quickly a once-standard classroom skill stopped being universal. Now  I love to write, however I have the handwriting of a Dr doing prescriptions, yes that bad, I write at every given opportunity but in fifty years it has never improved, I am so jealous of those whose hand writing is neat and tidy! It’s the one skill set I wish I had

When I was a child, I was in the Boys Brigade and I was taught map reading and how to use a compass, a skill set that proved very useful when I joined the army, now I can still read a map, but I bet I don’t remember how to use a compass (I would have a good go) travellers once planned routes with printed road and topographic maps. A paper map requires interpreting symbols, scale, direction, landmarks, and distance instead of following spoken instructions. GPS is faster, but the Ordnance Survey maps still teaches the underlying map-reading skills.

Using a compass requires understanding bearings, directions, map orientation, and magnetic declination. I bet the Boys Brigade and the Scouts still teach these techniques because electronic navigation can fail, especially in remote areas where batteries, devices, or signals become unreliable, technology pfft who needs it!

Something as simple as changing a tyre was long considered part of roadside self-reliance. The job requires stopping safely, setting the brake, finding the jack point, loosening nuts, raising the vehicle, and installing the spare. Roadside assistance helps, but the AA still recommends learning the process, mind you some cars don’t even come with a spare these days, how the hell was that allowed to happen?

Modern vehicles have tyre-pressure monitoring systems, but warning lights do not replace routine checks. Common sense advises checking every tyre, including the spare, at least monthly when cold. Many drivers now depend mainly on dashboard alerts or service appointments, I laugh when I hear of someone says, “but the car does everything, why didn’t it work”?

Manual gearboxes were once common enough that operating a clutch and changing gears were classed as ordinary driving skills. Their market share collapsed as automatics improved and spread. Many Car magazines have documented the decline, leaving gear stick driving to becoming increasingly niche.

School manual-training programs once put students in classrooms to learn wood and metal work. That meant becoming comfortable with saws, hammers, planes, measuring tools, and other equipment. Many students can now finish school without any knowledge of such courses,  ensuring the general public have no option but to leave small repairs to professionals.

A simple shelf or repair requires accurate measuring, marking, squaring, and cutting before pieces are joined. Early manual-training courses treated these abilities as general education, not advanced craftsmanship. Flat-pack furniture and cheap replacements have made basic woodworking less necessary, mind you I do like a bit of flat pack furniture, mainly for  my music collection!

Sharpening a knife properly takes practice and a consistent angle. It’s a skill  that if you use a whetstone to sharpen something it’s a skill set that depends heavily on muscle memory. Many home cooks now use pull-through sharpeners, replace inexpensive knives, or send good blades to professionals instead.

At school I joined the sailing club, it wasn’t a big club we usually ended up on one or two boats, but you do need a skill set to know how to tie a square knot, bowline, clove hitch, or sheet bend this has practical uses in many things including  boating, camping, hauling, and household work. Many youth organisation training programs still teach knot tying through hands-on challenges. For many children (or people under 20), tying anything beyond a shoelace is unfamiliar territory.

First aid was promoted as a public skill long before smartphone instructions existed. The St Johns ambulance ran training courses and  created excellent training courses in the early twentieth century and it has trained millions since. Immediate knowledge still matters because professional help is not always present in the first minutes, I have lost count how many serious incidents that I have been close to and that I was able to assist quite a few people at their time of need, I know of at least instance where I was able to save two people, one from a heart attack (that nearly killed me as the ambulance and the crew were stuck in traffic trying to get to us, that was the longest 40 minutes of my life thankfully there were two of us and we managed to keep him going until the ambulance arrived, he survived because of both of us and we didn’t even get a thank you from the miserable scroat, another incident happened when I had to jump from one Cherry picker to another when a worker had accidentally smashed a mirror at height and the mirror cut his jugular I was able to close the wound and get to the ground floor , I saw that gentleman quite often and he would often buy me a pint if he ever saw me and he even introduced me to his family “as the lad that saved my life” sadly he passed during covid, that was a scary incident, you wouldn’t be able to do it today because of all the safety procedures.

Now before anyone complains I have no idea where this blog popped up from, but as like the “Broken Promises” blog I do believe at my grand old age I seem to be maturing, who knew, stay safe and stay alive until the next one……………Toodles”

Four On the floor October New Releases.

Led By Vultures – Self Titled 8/10.

An album by the multi talented Brian Tichy (one of the nicest men in rock) I have to say that as I do kind of know him, its a good album but it wont stop the world, its pretty much a self produced effort, in every way I believe he also wrote and produced everything and pretty much played everything, there isnt a bad track on it in my opinion, the standout tracks are “Get it Right” “Below the clouds of Jupiter” and an Evening of the odds! Its obvious where his influences come from and thats not a bad thing in this day of Spotify and the such like its quite easy to have a taste and make your own mind up!

Europe – Come This Madness 7.5/10.

Now this album I had been waiting for this one for nearly 9 years and I thought this would be really special, and its not a bad album simply its not brilliant, there are some flashes of brilliance, but the album as whole is missing that special touch, that past albums have, “Scandinavian Eyes” has a touch of the old school guitar style that we were expecting, “The Devils Back” is good old fashioned rocker, but it still misses that missing X factor, a good album just not great espically after waiting 9 long years!

Roger Taylor – Violence Insane in a Beautiful World 8/10.

Now I will admit that the last few Roger Taylor solo albums have been a bit po faced with no fun at all, he had got serious in his old age, this was a breath of fresh air and it’s fun with a capital F, the two things I don’t care for is the album title and the cover of “Jealous Guy” but the rest I love from the African choir to the humour in the lyrics, its taken a while but its glad to see he has his humour back, its well played well produced is it metal, not in the slightest, there are some rocky moments but I don’t care its nice to see the man doing what he does best,,,,,,having fun making music!

Wolskald – Echoes from the Deep 8/10.

Now this the strangest album of this selection, it does have a rock kind of feel, with a little bit of a sea shanty kind of feel , some of the songs are sung in Norwegian as that is where they allegedly come from I heard the track “Mother Told Me” which is quite guttural vocally, but a ctachy little ditty, theres just one thing wrong, this isnt a band its not even human this whole album was created by AI, and I discovered a number of bands doing exactly the same kind of spiel, I like it but if this the future of music, well the industry is F****D!

The Song Remains the Same.

The last blog has done way better than expected and set off a number of questions that I feel need to be answered, they have been answered before and this will be the last time that I will address these questions, the next blog was meant to be a “four on the floor” blog, I have the bare bones of it but it’s a review blog and I simply haven’t had the chance to really play the guts out of the music that I wish to review, so that will become the next blog (honest it will, bear with me) so lets answer a couple of questions to get something published.

Why am I not consistent regarding the publishing of the blogs? A couple of reasons and if you do trawl backwards you will see that I have mentioned this a couple of times, life basically gets in the way, my health is pretty crap at the moment, its getting better (allegedly) but its like playing whack a mole something gets better something else pops up, my wife’s not well, and we occasionally look after my grandson from time to time to give his parents a little respite, then I have work which has been damn busy over the last 12 weeks and then I have to play catch up from the backlog of stuff while I have been busy! On top of that I don’t sleep past 4 in the morning, so as the days goes by, I can be just a little bit ragged, do the math there is not enough hours (or sleep) in the day, something has to give and at the minute its going to be the blog! Not intentionally, I am still writing and making plans but I always want to do my best for the blog so it will be quality over quantity, that’s all I can do.

The question that has popped up over the most over the last few weeks is why do I do the name game? Well because usually its some music that might have inspired the blog, maybe a word or a phrase, maybe even a chorus, sometimes (as in this case) the name, but if that sparks something well then that’s what its going to be, I would say out of the 680 odd blogs I bet 98% off them are music related. Music is now and has been from a very early age an obsession for me, I used to try and sing (try being the operative) word, I wrote songs for a period of time, I have always been around music, my friends are usually just as obsessive as me, damn it some are even more so than I am, its great, my bucket list is to sit around listening to music and do nothing except  blogging, that’s something at least to aim for.

Also with the original blogs I used to get quite a few people trying to guess them, some did it badly, some obviously googled the crap out of it and some really did know where I was coming from, yes some of them were a tad obscure, and the habit has stuck, music colours my day, it helps soothe the savage beast, I try and have headphones on for the bulk of the day, its only recently that I have begun to watch the TV, simply to give the wife some company, after all we are a married couple (happily I would add ,,,,,well for about 98% of the time), as a kid my mother used to play music all the time, as did my older brother and from when I was around 7, I was bitten by the bug and there ain’t no damn cure!

Now the title of this blog most people should get it quite easily, and I know my friends will mock me quite mercilessly, as they know I’m not a fan of the band (not my cup of tea so to speak) again I have mentioned it previously, although I do intend to do a “Four on the Floor” type of blog on them, just so people understand my take on them and to be honest if you have to google who sang the song well lets just say…..nothing and we will leave it at that!

So, I would suggest that you sit back and enjoy the ride, because I have no intention of stopping now, music really was my first love and it definitely will be my last,  another question has been will I be doing more books and will I be rereleasing the books that I released, again this has been covered previously ( and is unlikely to be mentioned again) when I released the books I was hoping for double digits, and I kept the price completely as low as I could (I didn’t make a penny off the books) I did 7 books and they all hit low triple digits, and as they slowed to no sales they were withdrawn, I think that they can still be found on the Blurb Books website but that’s it, there won’t be a reprint so if you have one well done to you. (I do have a small handful left and if you’re not obnoxious I might just send a copy,,,, watch this space).

Yes, I would love to write a novel and again as I have said previously, I do have a couple of what I like to think are great story ideas, however it’s about getting the voice of the characters that I am struggling with, as I simply do not have the time, to sit and write, maybe one day, hopefully!

So, there you go another missive fired from the hip I have more than enough questions from you the discerning reader to do 3 or 4 “Now Hear This” style of blogs but these had been asked before and I simply want to keep that type of blog as fresh as possible, keep spreading the word, click like or whatever it is that you do because the blogs have been doing great numbers, so thank you it really does help keep the ship afloat, not in a money sense but simply the more who like it, the more likely I am to write another one, ah well back to the grind stay, safe stay alive, and until the next time……………..Toodles!

Yet another bump in the road

And just like that life came to a grinding halt, with something as innocuous as a simple letter, I had been told (in the never ending saga of trying to get a new knee) to suck it up buttercup, but hey lets go back to the beginning and I will tell you the full tale.

In 2011 me and the wife went to a get together with friends in Blackpool, a good night was had by all but sometime as we were walking to the venue my knee did something it shouldn’t have and it caused me a lot of pain, it didn’t stop the night, but I was in quite a bit of pain, but I soldiered on, like the good soldier that I am, the pain eased the next day but it continued over the next couple of weeks, it got so bad that I eventually went to the DRs, because I had Bupa through work I was seen by a surgeon and had an operation in under two weeks cue 13 weeks of rehab, and I got on with my life, however the place that I worked at wasn’t helping, concrete floors, on site 6/7 days a week covering 24000 + steps a day, well lets just say it didn’t help my knees, it was simply the start of a long road of pain!

Fast forward 11 years I decided to go back to see another Dr, as I was really suffering, hoping to be told (as I still had Bupa at the time) that I could as see the surgeon again, only to be told “no they wont do anything for you as you are still too young”(I was 57 at the time) and for some stupid reason I believed him and simply cracked on like a good little boy, fast forward to a couple of years and I gave in, as I was slowing down to a snails pace and in pain on a daily basis. I didn’t see a Dr this time I saw what’s known as a nurse practitioner, she asked me a couple of questions including what painkillers I take (erm none if I can avoid them) and she said (another stupid man) then she asked the most important question “why have you waited so long?” so I told her all about the previous visit, she asked which Dr and I told her who and what was said, she wasn’t happy and she went and told said Dr in no uncertain terms, I was in the army and took a couple of tellings off, I never took anything like that, ooh how I chuckled, she then started the ball rolling, of course I had to do physio, that didn’t help, I then fell out with a surgeon, when I asked a question and the member of staff went to ask, she got abused by him and I stood up to him and that didn’t go down well with him, more appointments and an appointment to give me a plan of attack I had to lose 10 kilo’s before my next appointment.

I had three months to my next appointment, I had to lose the weight over Christmas, deep joy because of my knees I can’t exercise like I would be able to, I ate very simply, steamed veg with chicken or fish, I wasn’t naughty I behaved and when I went back I had actually lost 17 kilo’s I could have my new knee, hopefully in May, then everything went upside down, issues regarding surgical cement hit the whole world, I knew there would be issues, then I got radio silence, until I got a call from a clinic to prepare me for my op, it should happen 12 weeks after that, then nothing and all the while I keep getting worse, at the end of my clinic I was advised to contact my GP and see if she could send a letter to find out what was happening, and again radio silence was maintained for about 4 weeks, when I was informed that a reply had been received, and this is what pissed me off, I wasn’t asking to jump the queue I was simply asking where I was in the queue, I was in serious pain and suffering as I had had no contact other than an anonymous text asking me if I still wanted the operation, what do they think, no its a miracle my knee has repaired itself, good grief are these people for real?

What was in the letter, well basically I have to suck it up and wait your turn, OK it wasn’t that blunt but that’s what they meant, I had been sucking it up for over 4 years, and as I said previously I wasn’t trying to jump any queue I was simply after some communication, I was simply gobsmacked at the callousness of the reply very little human emotion in the letter, surgeons really do have the god complex, well this one appears to think he is! I had had a conversation with a friend from another NHS trust who gave me some advice that I thought I would never need, after my anger subsided I sent him a text, to which he give me a call and said all the right things, he said he would have a word, he calmed me down and we chatted about nothing but music and general chit chat, he certainly cheered me up, he went to work the next day and got me added to his surgeon’s friends list, at the back of the list I may add, I certainly haven’t jumped the queue, but I could be potentially seen by January next year not the following year, I have to see my GP so she can send a letter transferring me to me that list, fingers crossed, I have written this missive to share not just my frustration but the rest of the population are probably suffering as well, and I have a cunning plan that I will write about on another date.

So hopefully, this shall get me back on track, both blog wise and hopefully health wise, watch this space, so stay safe and stay alive until the next one ………….Toodles!

Five Truths

Some people treat their birthday as they would any other day. That does not mean they begrudge anyone else their celebration; they have simply chosen not to mark their own in the same way. For me, that outlook rests on five personal truths.

1. Strength Can Begin in Simplicity

Since childhood, I have rarely celebrated my birthday. Growing up in a one-parent family, I saw how hard my mother worked to afford even the simplest things. The strain took its toll on her and, in different ways, on my brother and me. We did not complain; we simply wanted what was best for her. I learned not to place too much importance on special occasions, because they could bring pressure as easily as joy. When you grow up with very little, you learn not to miss what you have never had. Life simply carries on.

2. Peace Is Its Own Celebration

I am naturally low-maintenance. Gifts, parties and noise have never mattered greatly to me. I enjoy being with family and friends, but I do not need to be the centre of attention. I also value my own company. Sometimes, genuine peace is the most meaningful celebration of all. Not everyone will understand that—and they do not need to.

3. Give More Than You Receive

I have always preferred helping others to receiving things myself. We live somewhat on the outskirts and do not see people often, but distance does not lessen my commitment to those I care about. My wife is navigating some difficult circumstances, and I hope I am helping her through them. The same is true for my family and anyone I consider a friend: it may take me a while to get there, but if I can help, I will. Some people see me as strong, although I am not always sure that I am. What I do know is that I will make myself available when someone needs me. When it is my turn to need support, however, I find it difficult to risk feeling like a burden.

4. Learn to Create Your Own Happiness

Ultimately, each of us must learn what genuinely brings us contentment. It took me time to understand that. I savour a quiet meal and moments alone, but I also treasure time with family and friends. I am not as insular as I once was. These days, I can be equally happy in good company or in the stillness of my own space. Solitude is not loneliness; sometimes it is simply where we find balance.

5. Measure Life by Progress, Not Dates

For me, another year is not really about cake or candles. It is about whether I have grown, learned or achieved something meaningful. A birthday may mark another journey around the sun, but the passing of time matters less than what we do with it. We all need a sense that we are moving forward; otherwise, what is the journey for?

This is not intended to sound dour. It is simply my attempt to explain how I see life, family and friendship. I was once far more withdrawn, and I have experienced many highs and just as many lows. Much of that came from my own state of mind rather than from the people around me. A few people have asked about me and about my philosophy on life. I am not sure this qualifies as a philosophy, but it is honest: value people, offer help when you can, find peace within yourself, and judge the years not by the dates that pass, but by the person you are becoming.

How does that sit with everyone who asked questions, no the name game is not in play, but my notes are pretty close to the actual blog as i wrote this as a stream of consciousness on public transport, i have to admit that i enjoyed writing this truthful missive, i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did, the first of the month, watch this space, but until then.........Toodles! 

Fluff

It has been pointed out to me that most the stuff that I appear to write these days is “Fluff”! At no point in time have I ever said that the scribblings of this old man are anything but fluff, I simply put down on the page whatever is floating the clouds in my brain, I mean this is going to be fluff, I don’t care it is what it is, I have a long list of stuff that I want to write about, but if a spark is fired then lets get the word down, and if I like I will post it!

This is not above solving the problems of the greater issues, this is simply me staying in touch with my reality, life is not always great and I have had some horrible moments in my past that I thought I would never get over, thankfully at this moment I am in a good spot so if I do write some drivel, I mean fluff I believe I’m entitled , I do strive to write something meaningful at all times however that’s simply something can not be controlled, life is what it is and we have no control over it, we all can simply do one step at a time and then hope that we reach our destination safely.

However at times when you think that you are heading in the right direction, a small speedbump however can send you spiralling off the road into arguments with people, some who matter some who don’t, when it spirals like this to be honest I really don’t care, the old me appears and then its not fluff that gets spewed, the world and his dog can go and get fucked, it also shows in my writing, as a number of people have picked up that my writing appears to be “happier” its quite astonishing how people who have never physically met me seem to know me, probably better than I know myself.

I would like to have more of a footing in the real world, but what with work and my health issues and family pressures it appears that is not likely to happen anytime soon, but I will keep writing, its all that I can do, for me myself and my sanity, what little I have left, so if its fluff I post go with the flow, its where I am at that particular moment in time, there’s not really a lot that I can do about it, some people have said that the more I post the fluffier it gets, the more sporadic I post the more “real” it seems, to be honest I have no idea what they mean, I have flows and ebbs regarding what I post there’s not a lot I can do about that.

So life goes on, a small missive to keep me happy as this was in my head as I started typing, this was fired from the hip so to speak, stay safe stay alive, this will appear at some time, I don’t know when hopefully on a day when I am slightly happier, (I was happy when I started, I wasn’t by the time I finished)watch the skies for incoming, but until then …..Toodles!

Four on the Floor – Top Ten Album Covers.

In no particular order here are ten albums covers that impressed me as a kid and I do mean as a kid, as I have grown my tastes have changed, I like what I like, do I like all of the albums musically, mmm some of them I love some of them I’m not bothered about, but the album covers are stunning, some bands are missing in action, I love Queen and I like the artwork of most of the albums “like” being the operative word. I love most of the Iron maiden albums covers and Mark Wilkinson artwork for both Fish and Marillion and many other artistes, again there’s nothing here from them. So lets delve into my youth and see if there's anything that you like!

1. Blue Oyster Cult – On Your Feet or on Your Knees 8.5/10, the first album I bought with my own money, (Tubular Bells at a charity shop doesn’t count) there’s just something sinister about the cover, I had a huge poster from Callers in Newcastle I was there when they took it down in the shop and my mum asked them for it, if I had asked they probably would have told me to bugger off, but my mum asked and I got it rolled and put in a tube, it took one whole wall in my bedroom, I had a girlfriend who didn’t like to visit me simply because of that poster (LOL).

2. ELO – Out of the Blue 8/10. An album cover that’s quite simple (unlike the music) but whenever I see it it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling, again an album of its time and a time when I was usually happy, I know me with my reputation, times were good just like this album!

3. UFO – Obsession 9/10. what an album, what a cover they both blew my mind , I already liked the band, but this simply took it to another level and it took me a while to realise that the artwork was actually the bloody band, why only 9 out of ten, well about 20 years ago I went to an exhibition of alternative artwork and this was there in a multi colour version of this that was simply stunning!

4. Wishbone Ash – Live Dates 7.5/10. an album my brother had and I always wanted this as a

t- shirt, I love the art and I do like the music, I did see this as a t-shirt for sale in the USA but it wasn’t worth $80, but I was tempted, I do go back to the album from time to time, but the artwork has stuck with me.

5. Kansas – Point of Know Return 8.5/10. I kept seeing this album cover long before I ever heard it, but the second I heard it, I had to devour everything that I could, still one of the only bands I wanted to see that I never got to, and yes I do play most of the mid 70’s back catalogue of this band I simply loved Steve Walsh’s voice!

6. Tom Robinson Band – Power in the Darkness 9/10. The album cover that was the first thing painted on my school haversack (it was a 70’s thing) the album came with a stencil (which is now worth more than the album) I played this album non stop when it came out, the next thing on my haversack was The dickies logo, it lasted a fortnight before I repainted the TRB logo, that shows you how easy the stencil was to use because I did it myself (the second time) and it stayed for the rest of my school days!

7. The Skyhooks – Guilty until Proven Insane 8/10. the cover made me buy the album, I paid £1 for it my local shop cut out bin (I used to by a lot from there as I was always skint) and I loved the whole album, I knew nothing about the band but I played it a couple of times a week (and I still do) about a month after I bought this, a band called Iron Maiden released a cover of Women in Uniform that came from this album, I prefer the Skyhooks version.

8. Molly Hatchet – Debut 9/10. their best album but the album artwork by Frank Frazetta turned me onto the artwork of this fab artist, who I unknowingly had liked his previous album artwork ( Nazareth) good album great artwork.

9. The Scorpions – Lovedrive 9/10. At the time I thought that this was a weird cover (just about all of the Scorpions album artwork was) however similar to the UFO album, the band was on fire as was the artists, this album artwork was produced by Hipgnosis as were quite a few of this list and a lot of wonderful other artists, the album kicked the band out into the stratosphere I think the album cover helped.

10. Judas Priest – Killing Machine 9/10. I love this album cover (and all of the music) I do actually like quite a few Judas Priest album covers (there’s a couple of stinkers as well) this just about brought the decade to a close, things from here went through the roof and again if I went through the decades I probably compile a top one thousand covers, no I have no intention of doing this, don’t worry I know I do wander off the beaten track from time to time but with this I can assure you that I will stray this time!

Now this was all about the covers not the music , mind you I do like all of the albums, some of them I love, believe it or not 99% of the time covers have not influenced my buying pedigree of music, but that 1% of the albums I have bought based on a cover and not knowing anything about that band all of them have have been fantastic! Now what to blog about next time, you will just have to wait and see but until then …….Toodles!